A MAN had to be rescued when he fell down the steps of Darwen Tower after a late-night drinking session.

Bolton Mountain Rescue Team was called to the area after police found three men on land leading up to the tower, one of whom had suffered a suspected fractured ankle.

The man, from Darwen, took a fall while inside the tower and injured himself.

Garry Rhodes, of Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, said they were called out just before 10.30pm.

He said: “Just before 11pm, our first team member, Gyles Denn, arrived at the base of the moorland track up to Darwen Tower, at the top of Belgrave Road.

“At 11pm, the first of our three responding Mountain Rescue Land Rover ambulances arrived and accessed the moorland track network, with a police officer on board, to locate the casualty site."

After the fall, the man’s two friends had helped him to come some way down from the tower to a bench.

Once the team located them, they gave the injured man pain-killing gas and put a splint on his ankle.

Mr Rhodes said: “By 11.30pm, the casualty was at the roadside on Belgrave Road. He was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital in an ambulance just before midnight.

“We would like to express our thanks to the residents of Manor Road and Belgrave Road for their understanding.”

Sunnyhurst councillor Dave Smith said: “If you are going to go up to the tower then you shouldn’t go when you are drunk.

“It was very irresponsible, and when they have to call the mountain rescue team out it costs a fortune.

“This was a very stupid thing to do.”